<p>So I’m having difficulty deciding which grad programs to apply to, and whether I should choose physics and/or math programs. So far, I have about 20 schools on my list. I’ve tried asking my advisors for help, but they aren’t terribly helpful (for example, I’ve emailed some random profs at my school that I’ve never met, and they seemed more willing to help). </p>
<p>I did research with prof A at another university a few summers ago, and we’ve exchanged emails a few times since then. The most recent one was about a month ago, where I asked for general advice about physics. He just told me that I have what it takes to be a physicist and that I completed a difficult part of the project sooner than he expected, and that I should apply to schools based on location. Well now that I have a better idea of what areas of physics interest me, I sent him another email last week about which specific schools to apply to, my chances of getting admitted, and if he knows any profs at those schools. He hasn’t responded since. He usually takes a few days to respond, but I don’t think a week long. </p>
<p>I also did research with this Associate Adjunct prof at my school. Last year, I was about to apply to grad schools, and I asked for his advice, but he just suggested that I look at the US news rankings and thought of a few schools that have good programs in his research area. Last month, I emailed him and told him that I had a broad range of interests, so I didn’t know what departments to apply to. He responded by saying that based on my email, he suggested I look into mechanical engineering depts (possibly because I only applied to one program last year, which was in mech eng). I asked him to elaborate on that, but got no response. My interests have changed since then, so I was thinking of asking for his help again, especially since he has a physics phD but is now doing applied math. </p>
<p>Though they have agreed to write me LORs in the past, I don’t know what to do here. Should I phone call these profs for more detailed advice? Or would they not like that?</p>
<p>I think you need to back off, except to ask for letters. You are putting your professors on the spot by asking what your chances are (nobody knows) and whether you can use their contacts. It’s okay to ask once what schools you should consider because of your interest in (specific) X, but not okay to keep pushing it. Any other advice should come unsolicited from them as you continue through the process. Don’t expect anyone to pull some magic strings to get you into graduate school. Don’t expect anyone else to do the research you need to do.</p>
<p>The risk of applying to graduate schools is all yours, for better or worse. You can’t expect people to estimate your chances or determine where you should apply or judge whether your GRE scores are good enough. No one knows these things. Yes, you can solicit advice (up to a point), but ultimately you need to have faith that what you’ve done in the past is good enough. If your admissions cycle ends without acceptances (and believe me, that happens much more frequently at this level than at the undergraduate one), then you determine what you need to do to strengthen your application for the next cycle.</p>
<p>What MWFN said, word for word. I have been there and have seen posters on CC and elsewhere freaking out like this. Grad school is like trying to get a new job after graduation. It’s a new chapter of your life and it has no structure or instruction manual for you, and that makes it all even more uncertain and scary. Treat it like a job- you don’t know how many applicants are vying for that spot and what their qualifications are. All you can do is just pick the programs that are BEST FIT for you (and them) and put your faith that the dice lands on the right side.</p>
<p>Also as for your LOR writers, while they are happy to write, they are also attempting to be professionals. Unless you explicitly state that School XXX is your FIRST choice, they aren’t going to pull any ropes except to write the best letter they can. There are a lot of politics between professors involved that applicants outside the system don’t know about and it’s not your place to put your nose in it. Trust your professors’ professional judgment. They don’t want to favor one program over another unless they have super close contacts and think that you are absolutely perfect for them. It’s irritating, I know. </p>
<p>Also, only YOU know what your personal strengths and weaknesses are and what you’re happiest doing and you should choose programs that have research that you want to do. Professors aren’t going to dictate where you <em>should</em> go because you want to be in a program that makes you the happiest person out there, not miserable because someone told you to go there. I have actually taken schools off my list that were suggested by my professors because, after deep investigation in the program’s faculty and requirements, I couldn’t see myself there. They weren’t offended when I told them that these schools were poor fit (poor fit = miserable student).</p>
<p>I should add that there’s a difference between a natural back-and-forth, ongoing exchange about graduate school and once-in-a-while contact. For example, one of my D’s LOR writers wanted to meet with her weekly during the fall semester to help her through the process; this wasn’t something my D asked for, or even expected. She gleaned a lot of information in the context of their conversations, and her professor got to know her even better; however, my D didn’t communicate this regularly about grad school with her other LOR writers. The only reason it happened was because the meetings were initiated by the professor.</p>
<p>But my D was prepared to do the whole process on her own. Most students do.</p>
<p>I don’t expect my profs to do all the work for me. I’ve done everything on my own. I just thought that advisors usually like to help out their students with things like evaluating their chances, telling them what professors they know at another school, etc. So I thought that because other profs I didn’t know showed more interest in helping out than my advisors, I thought this was a sign that they didn’t think too highly of me and weren’t going to write great LORs.</p>
Not really. Professors aren’t going to tell you the likelihood of you getting into any particular program; they don’t know! They can only tell you if, generally, your application is strong enough or too weak for top programs, etc.</p>
<p>And professors certainly aren’t going to just list out whom they know because that has no relevance to your grad school selection process. In some cases, with a professor long-established in the field, there may not be a single person your professor DOESN’T know. Figure out who at which school interests you, THEN ask your professors if they know/have opinions about that person.</p>
<p>Doesn’t usually work, OP, to say “Hey, I’m interested in A, do you know anyone there??” I’ve tried. But as krytonsa suggested, it can help to build a list of schools and professors at these places and show them to your professors. It worked for me this round so far. Sometimes professors aren’t always aware that somebody’s moved. I’ve run into this more than once- “Oh I didn’t know that X was working here… I thought he was still at Y…” Or if your professors are older, then their colleagues at previous schools might have retired already and just don’t know the new faculty. It just has a lot to do with how close they are with their colleagues to make a case for you personally.</p>
<p>You have to judge these things on the fly a lot of the time. If you are meeting in person or even talking on the phone, you can use your instincts (if your social instincts are good) to determine when you are close to crossing a boundary. To add to the confusion, some professors accept things and will do things that others won’t. But if you ask a blunt question and don’t get a straight response, you should never push it. The last thing you want to do is annoy an LOR writer – or purse an LOR writer who obviously doesn’t want to do it. You have to judge when you should back off.</p>
<p>So I guess its not a good idea at this point to ask the 2 profs I mentioned earlier if they can edit my statement of purpose? Who can I possibly ask then? Should I ask professors I took classes with but I don’t plan on getting LORs from them?</p>
<p>Do not ask any professor, LOR writer or not, to edit your SOP. I would be ticked off if a student asked me to do that, and I would question that student’s ability to pursue the independent work required of a graduate student. Certainly, a LOR professor might offer some feedback after reading your SOP ("You might want to focus more on your research . . . " or "This last paragraph needs to be stronger. . . "), but most probably won’t say anything at all about it. Professors are not editors. </p>
<p>If you have major writing problems, then take your SOP to your career center or your writing center for help. Or ask some friends for feedback. But, really, if you are going to graduate school, you should be able to write a polished, error-free statement that expresses your credentials and ambitions. </p>
<p>I should have been more specific. I don’t need help with grammar. Yes, feedback was what I was looking for. In addition to wanting feedback about my discussion on research, I mostly need help regarding this one section where I discuss how a family illness affected my studies, and I felt pressured to graduate early and miss some important physics electives classes. </p>
<p>I thought that a physics professor would be better able to help with this than friends or the writing center. Plus, since I already graduated, its an hour drive to the writing center</p>
<p>The people in your college’s writing center are trained to give feedback on these sorts of things. See if e-mail correspondence instead of personal meetings with a writing instructor is an option.</p>
<p>Besides, an hour away isn’t all that far, especially for something as important as this. People commute that far every day in some areas of the country.</p>
<p>Alright, I made an appointment for the writing center. Should I also stop by the offices of the profs who plan to write my LORs? I guess they wouldn’t say much about my SOP if I showed it to them. </p>
<p>I also just realized that I should mention that, even though I didn’t go to the writing center, I mainly drove over there to meet with my professors. I hadn’t seen one of them since fall 2007! Well, last May, only very briefly… but I made a longer appointment with him just to talk about graduate school and get some guidance about his subfield. I didn’t really expect much from him as he wasn’t one of my LOR writers. But after looking at my list and statement, he offered to make suggestions on my statement if I could e-mail everything to him. I was very surprised but happy to have another pair of eyes.</p>
<p>Meeting professors, face-to-face, after a long absence is not the same as e-mailing back and forth. You get a lot more done because of the conversation speed. There’s also that spontaneity. You will come up with some things you had wondered but don’t want to bother to put in those thoughts in an e-mail. For example, my undergrad adviser wanted to know if I had submitted anything for publication and I said, “yeah, like six weeks ago,” and then she said, “and they haven’t said no yet?” I shook my head and she smiled and suggested that it was good news. Oh, I didn’t know that. </p>
<p>So, OP, there you have it. It’s always worth making time to talk to them face-to-face, especially if you’re serious about graduate school and pursuing similar fields where everyone’s going to know someone. So when you visit, just bring your laptop/netbook/whatever with you in your backpack and power it up if someone asks to look at it.</p>
<p>Ok, I sent an email to ask to make an appointment with that prof I haven’t seen in 1.5 years. But I shouldn’t make an appointment with the prof I did research with, as I should back off from him, right?</p>
<p>Make an appointment with him, too. Plan on spending the entire day there. </p>
<p>You just need to back off from bugging them about your chances, what schools you should apply to, etc. Have a conversation about your goals, where you plan to apply, what you’ve done since you’ve graduated, etc. so they can write up-to-date LORs. If they offer advice, listen carefully.</p>